Did You Save Anyone Today?

Back when I was a traffic operations professional, I believed I was saving lives by practicing my profession exactly as it was taught. But was I?

21 Years of Growth, 21 Years of Risk: What Sacramento’s Budget Really Says

Sacramento’s growth looks strong, but what do 21 years of financial data really show? Dive into the numbers with the Strong Towns Finance Decoder.

Top StoryStrong TownsMay 14, 2025municipal finance, california, local conversations, data

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Make a More Walkable City

How do you create a walkability initiative that gets covered on the news, triggers a city-funded pilot program, and inspires people to stay in the city long-term? Andrew Neidhardt and Dustin Moore explain.

Small Changes With Big Impacts in Dallas

On April 23, the Dallas City Council unanimously agreed to allow up to eight dwelling units in three-story buildings. This shift opens the door to a more prosperous city.

Top StoryStrong TownsMay 13, 2025Incremental Housing, texas, missing middle, rational response, Small Change

We Can’t Solve the Housing Crisis While Making Infill This Hard

The rules weren’t made for small-scale housing — and that’s quietly driving up costs. Here’s a look at how the system makes affordability harder to deliver.

ZacTax: How To Build Financially Healthy Cities

ZacTax is a financial analysis firm that helps city officials understand their revenue streams and make smarter financial choices. Today, Chuck is joined by its founders to discuss how they're helping build a culture of productive cities. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMay 12, 2025podcast, transparent local accounting, property tax, texas, sales tax

How Strong Towns Metro Milwaukee Is Building a Regional Movement for Change

An advocate group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started with an email. Now, it’s expanded to cover the metro area and even beyond. Here’s how it happened.

Top StoryJohn PattisonMay 12, 2025local conversations, wisconsin, taking action, advocacy, bottom-up

Less Talk, More Walk: Better Design Starts Outside, Not in the Conference Room

Advocates agree: better urban planning starts outside, not in a conference room. Walking your neighborhood reveals what reports can’t.

Top StoryStrong TownsMay 9, 2025walkability, Street Design, streets, advocacy, bottom-up

Dallas Just Made It Easier to Build the Housing It Desperately Needs

Dallas is simplifying the process for building smaller, affordable homes. Could this shift be the key to addressing the city's housing shortage?

Top StoryStrong TownsMay 9, 2025housing crisis, housing policy, policy change, housing affordability, texas

The Bottom-Up Revolution Is...Proving the Power of Infill Housing Development

Rosaline Hill is a registered professional planner and awards-winning architect from Ottawa, Canada. She joins Tiffany to discuss the complexities of housing reform and to explain how she helps municipalities visualize and argue persuasively for development. (Transcript included.)

Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMay 8, 2025podcast, The Bottom-Up Revolution, Incremental Housing, infill, co-housing, canada

1 Small House, 7 Decades of Shelter: the Legacy of a Starter Home

Our housing crisis demands a return to simpler, more empowering development approaches. The same approaches that let my grandfather build a starter home that sheltered his family for 70 years.

What One First-Time Developer Can Teach Us About Housing Solutions

An overlooked opportunity to fight the housing crisis lies not just in scaling up development efforts, but in scaling down barriers.

California Universities Face a $17 Billion Growth Ponzi Scheme

California universities are facing $17 billion in deferred maintenance. Chuck and Abby explore how this problem arose, how it mirrors the challenges cities are facing, and what it'll take to manage this decline. (Transcript included.)

Pittsburgh's Low-Cost Traffic Calming Is a Model for Every City

With a bit of paint and plastic, speeds on a Pittsburgh street dropped from 36 to 23 mph overnight. Here’s how the Pennsylvania city is making its streets safer.

Vancouver’s Annexation Gamble: When “Go Big” Goes Terribly Wrong

Officials in Vancouver, Washington, are considering annexing all 56 square miles of their urban growth area. This would come at a staggering cost.

Bottom-Up Shorts: How To Build a Stronger Richmond Hill

Saeed Vahid, a Local Conversation leader from Richmond Hill, Ontario, joins Norm to talk about how his group collaborates with city officials and how the expansion of the Greater Toronto Area has affected Richmond Hill. (Transcript included.)

This California City is Doing the Math

Thanks to a new tool, a local group in Artesia is highlighting that true resilience lies in lasting stability, not just getting by in the moment.

Top StoryStrong TownsMay 6, 2025financial solvency, taxes, Finance Decoder, california, resource

Pedestrian Deaths Are Still Way Too High—Here's What Needs to Change

A new report shows pedestrian deaths dropped in 2024. But this “good news” comes with a huge asterisk: they're still 50% higher than they were a decade ago.